Last month during our short trip to Singapore, hubby and I were lucky enough to catch The Lion King. I've never watched the play and not even the Disney movie. But of course the songs were familiar. Who doesn't know "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?" or "Hakuna Matata?" In as much as I have never watched the movie, my favorite Disney cartoon movie song is "The Circle of Life." Needless to say the theater production was awesome. And full of Pinoy actors (yeah!)! But what struck me most was how relevant the meaning of the play was (and the songs were) to what I am going through in life right now.
Let us begin with "I Just Can't Wait To Be King." I saw myself in the little Simba. That was me for the most of my life... I am fortunate to have parents who built up my self-esteem and made me believe I was made for great things in the world: "I'm gonna be a mighty king, so enemies beware!... I'm gonna be the mane event, like no other king was before, I'm brushing up on looking down, I'm working on my roar!" Yet as much as I was gaining traction, something about it didn't feel right. Is this the "great thing" that I really want?
With that question, a new chapter begins...
While wanting to be "king" was somehow been ingrained in my system, life seems to show me there might be something else... "there's more to see than can ever be seen, more to do that can ever be done, there's far too much to take in here, more to find than can ever be found."
Indeed there was... "There's a rhyme and reason, to the wild outdoors, when the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours."
But the "roaring" does not stop. Or maybe I just didn't know what to do with myself other than what I've been doing for most of my life. I have found my place but maybe my time there was up. It was time to take "on the path unwinding in... the circle of life."
And the circle of life planted a new life in me. Literally and figuratively. Maybe this is what I've been waiting for... And "roaring" has no place in nurturing the life inside me. I may not be one to take on such a "wonderful phrase," but I had to say "Hakuna Matata" to my worries to that this new life inside me will grow fine and happy.
But it is a struggle. Because "hakuna matata" is a phrase not fit for a king. And if I take on such "a problem-free philosophy," I would be less of a king.
Then Simba had a conversation with the spirit of Mufasa. At that time he was struggle if he should go back to Pride Rock because he has changed, he has taken on "hakuna matata" - he was no longer a king. Yet his father assured him that in as much as he has grown and changed, some things never change: he will forever be his son.
It was a fitting message to me. In as much as the last couple of years I have seen myself morph into a person I only recognize half of the time, it doesn't mean that I have lost myself. My good friend K said it beautifully, I am just expanding myself. It wasn't about being a "king" anymore - or losing the ability to "roar." I'm sure as a mother I will have a lot of "roaring" to do (haha!). It's just about being able to take on a different philosophy here and there - whatever suits the situation best. And as we grow through the Circle of Life, we take on more philosophies we haven't even realized existed. Just because the world is also changing, and to be successful, we have to adapt and that may mean expanding our repertoire in how to deal with the situation. We can't just "roar" you know. But the key is to be in touch with the core - the constants in life. God, family, friends, principles.
At the end of the day, "it's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place, on the path unwinding, in the circle, the circle of life."
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